Smoke and flames rise after Hezbollah carried out a rocket attack on the city of Safed in northern Israel on June 12, 2024.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
A senior US adviser will travel to Israel to ease rising tensions on the border with Lebanon, where recent barrages of rockets have reignited the threat of a wider conflict between the Jewish nation and the Iran-backed militia.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has increased hostilities and cross-border rocket attacks on targets in northern Israel over the past week, according to the Israel Defense Forces and the Hezbollah-allied al-Manar news agency.
This comes amid an increase in Hezbollah attacks in recent weeks following repeated offensives against its neighbor since October.
The group is allied with the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, although Tehran denies that it directly commands it. Hezbollah expresses solidarity with the Palestinian plight amid Israel’s war campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions on the border have increased since Israel Defense Forces reported on June 12 that an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Jouaiyya killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Sami Taleb Abdullah, and three other group operatives.
A photo taken on June 14, 2024 from the southern Lebanese border town of Marjayoun shows smoke rising from Metullah on the Israeli side after it was attacked by rockets from Lebanon.
Rabih Hence | AFP | Getty Images
The IDF claimed that Taleb Abdullah “planned, masterminded and carried out a large number of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians,” which CNBC could not independently confirm.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel responded to the subsequent shelling with fighter jets, most recently mobilized against targets in four locations in southern Lebanon on Sunday – and warned that more wars could be underway.
“[The] “The Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon has intensified its attacks on Israel,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video address on Sunday, claiming the Lebanese militant group has fired over 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosive drones at Israel since joining the conflict.
“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression puts us on the brink of a potentially major escalation that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Hagari added. “Israel will take the necessary measures to protect its civilians until security is restored along our border with Lebanon. One way or another, we will ensure the safety of Israelis in their homes in northern Israel. This is not up for negotiation.”
However, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that any Israeli expansion of the conflict in Lebanon would bring “devastation, destruction and displacement” within the Jewish state, according to a Google-translated report from al- Manar.
He warned that Hezbollah had so far only used “a small portion of its capabilities relative to the nature of the battle.”
Since last year, tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have had to leave their settlements near the border as they quickly became battlefields.
The latest retaliation will be worrying for Washington as the country has sought to contain tensions that sparked a chain reaction of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Amos Hochstein, a senior diplomatic adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, is expected in Israel on Monday, an Israeli official told NBC News.
The White House sees a connection between calming tensions between Lebanon and Israel and ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip, and the Biden administration is trying to push through its peace plan for the enclave.
Israeli army soldiers are stationed along a road near the site where rockets from southern Lebanon fell near Kfar Szold in the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, on June 14, 2024.
Under Marey | AFP | Getty Images
The increase in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah will also raise questions for market watchers who have already seen how the Gaza war has affected international trade. Professing solidarity with the Palestinian cause, Yemen’s Houthis, also supported by Iran, have carried out a series of sea attacks in the Red Sea, disrupting or halting transit through a key trade route and effectively taking the waterway hostage.
According to a Google-translated update from Houthi spokesman Yahya Sare’e, the Yemeni group said on Sunday it had attacked three ships in the Red Sea, including a US destroyer – although it was unclear whether any of the missiles had hit.
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2024-06-17 12:11:04
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